Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / Early impressions from a Cubs camp with big expectations

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Early impressions from a Cubs camp with big expectations · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:06
Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory Foul Territory Networks Cubs podcast. I'm
0:11
Speaker 1: Sadam Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your
0:14
Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick, we are
0:19
Speaker 1: what I don't know what day it is. It's already
0:21
Speaker 1: that like I've barely been in spring training and I'm
0:24
Speaker 1: already I was trying to figure out what DAT is.
0:26
Speaker 2: But we're a few days into camp here.
0:29
Speaker 1: Obviously we talked about it last episode, but the expectations
0:33
Speaker 1: are high. It feels you can you can kind of
0:36
Speaker 1: feel the vibes of this is a team that wants
0:39
Speaker 1: to win.
0:39
Speaker 2: This is a team that expects to win, I should say.
0:42
Speaker 1: And and you know, there are a lot of interesting
0:47
Speaker 1: names around camp. There's the new ones, obviously, Edward Cabrera,
0:52
Speaker 1: Alex Bregman, or the big ones. Uh, there's the old
0:56
Speaker 1: ones at least you know, he's not an old player
1:00
Speaker 1: in the at least bit he's still young, still developing.
1:03
Speaker 1: But Petra Armstrong has been a topic, unsurprisingly coming off
1:08
Speaker 1: a season where first half MVP like second half, you know,
1:13
Speaker 1: looked more like a young player feeling his way through
1:16
Speaker 1: the league. Can he find consistency. What type of player
1:20
Speaker 1: is he? I think that is going to be a topic,
1:26
Speaker 1: you know, all all spring and at least early in
1:30
Speaker 1: the season and maybe all season long.
1:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm curious what. Pete is such an interesting character
1:39
Speaker 3: for us, like in the larger story of the Cubs.
1:43
Speaker 3: He is a huge personality. And why we all enjoy
1:46
Speaker 3: talking to Pete is because there's that element of unpredictability
1:51
Speaker 3: of like not knowing exactly how he's going to take
1:54
Speaker 3: certain questions and where he's gonna go in his answers.
1:59
Speaker 3: What was like Pete's state of Pete crow Armstrong. What
2:04
Speaker 3: were the or the takeaways, the tenor the demeanor, like
2:08
Speaker 3: give our listeners the full snapshot.
2:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, I think he very much is focused on improving.
2:17
Speaker 1: He understands he's not happy with his second half. He
2:21
Speaker 1: did not you know, I think that I'm stating the obvious.
2:25
Speaker 1: I guess I think we all know how Pete reacts
2:27
Speaker 1: to failure. We see it on his face, we see it,
2:31
Speaker 1: you know, with his reactions. I think he wants to
2:36
Speaker 1: There are some things that stood out to me. I'll
2:38
Speaker 1: talk about the like the personality stuff where the way
2:42
Speaker 1: he behaves he wants to be. He said, he wants
2:44
Speaker 1: to be more present in the sense that like, once
2:50
Speaker 1: my ad bat is over, once I'm in the dugout,
2:53
Speaker 1: I want to be present for my teammates instead of
2:56
Speaker 1: I think what he was getting at is, instead of
2:58
Speaker 1: dwelling on that's out that he just had or that
3:01
Speaker 1: hard hit line drive that got caught or whatever it
3:03
Speaker 1: happened in the previous at bat, that's over. Now focus
3:09
Speaker 1: on what can you do. You can cheer your teammates on.
3:12
Speaker 1: You can talk to them, you can get some knowledge
3:14
Speaker 1: from the hitting coach or or the you know the
3:17
Speaker 1: betteran Alex Gregman or whoever.
3:19
Speaker 2: Days we just wanted to.
3:20
Speaker 1: You know, I think I found that interesting in the
3:23
Speaker 1: sense that he feels like he can mature in certain ways.
3:26
Speaker 1: And look, I think that's a big part of youth.
3:32
Speaker 2: You know, everyone can.
3:34
Speaker 1: Everyone handles failure differently, And I don't think he was
3:37
Speaker 1: like this disaster.
3:38
Speaker 2: I don't think anybody would say that.
3:40
Speaker 1: But but I also think, like, I think he wants
3:43
Speaker 1: to be able to carry himself a little bit better
3:46
Speaker 1: when those bad moments pop up. And it's not like
3:49
Speaker 1: he was this huge issue. But I do think he
3:54
Speaker 1: believes he can mature in that way, and even those
3:57
Speaker 1: around him believe that.
3:58
Speaker 2: I don't. I just found that interesting.
4:00
Speaker 1: I don't think it's like this huge talking point, and
4:02
Speaker 1: I don't think it like anyone should take more than
4:05
Speaker 1: what I just said from it. This is not like
4:08
Speaker 1: a like do not go too far with This is
4:11
Speaker 1: not a makeup issue. This is not like is this
4:13
Speaker 1: going to rail his career? Nothing like that. He just
4:15
Speaker 1: feels like he can be better.
4:17
Speaker 2: I respect that.
4:18
Speaker 1: I appreciate it, you know, like I think people can.
4:23
Speaker 1: I don't love reading body language. I don't love being
4:26
Speaker 1: the body language police, but I think people there are
4:30
Speaker 1: people that do that, and it's going to happen. So
4:33
Speaker 1: be aware of the way you're carrying yourself and don't
4:37
Speaker 1: allow them to jump to conclusions about who you are
4:39
Speaker 1: or how you play the game. We know, we know
4:41
Speaker 1: how PCA is, like how people feel about PCA in
4:45
Speaker 1: this organization.
4:46
Speaker 2: He puts in the work.
4:47
Speaker 1: He's a good kid, he works hard, So why even
4:50
Speaker 1: give them something to talk about be yourself, play with passion.
4:55
Speaker 1: I think all that is important, but there are ways
4:57
Speaker 1: to improve in that area. I thought that was interesting
4:59
Speaker 1: that he brought that up.
5:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think those answers are telling in the sense
5:07
Speaker 3: that you can tell this is someone who thinks about
5:10
Speaker 3: these things and is pretty self aware and introspective, and
5:16
Speaker 3: you know, not just sort of expecting to be a
5:20
Speaker 3: great player. He puts in the work, and so I'm
5:24
Speaker 3: actually very optimistic that like Pete will get to a
5:29
Speaker 3: place where he's a very good major league player over
5:32
Speaker 3: a long period of time. I think it's a lot harder, though,
5:34
Speaker 3: to do some of these things that he's gonna be
5:36
Speaker 3: talking about. The body language police will be pointing to.
5:41
Speaker 3: I gus want to note that like people care about
5:43
Speaker 3: body language or not, just like media people trying to
5:46
Speaker 3: have a hot take, like generally speaking, people in uniform
5:51
Speaker 3: care about how players comport themselves, and that players can
5:54
Speaker 3: get annoyed at players who sort of become self absorbed.
5:58
Speaker 3: I'm certainly not saying that's Pete. I have Matt Gelb's
6:03
Speaker 3: awesome Nick Castiano story echoing in the back of my
6:07
Speaker 3: head here reading that one on the athletic of just
6:10
Speaker 3: a player who was and not to derail our conversation,
6:15
Speaker 3: but I think the distinction was not a bad teammate,
6:18
Speaker 3: but also not a team player. Pek or I'm strow
6:20
Speaker 3: is nowhere in that zip code. But like, there are
6:24
Speaker 3: certain things that make Pete you're great at baseball, and
6:28
Speaker 3: I think turning all those down is not only impossible,
6:32
Speaker 3: but could be counterproductive. And also some of these like
6:38
Speaker 3: swing decisions or approach things that we're talking about, there's
6:45
Speaker 3: a lot of gray area there. Hittings already maybe the
6:49
Speaker 3: hardest thing in professional sports, and when you start to
6:54
Speaker 3: subtract certain things you don't know, is I just I'm
6:58
Speaker 3: curious to see what the trade off.
7:01
Speaker 1: You know, we're on the same page here, Patrick, It's
7:03
Speaker 1: kind of like what I I look. I think drawing
7:08
Speaker 1: walks is hugely important. On base percentage is and really
7:11
Speaker 1: important statistic. I think there are outliers, and I think
7:14
Speaker 1: there are players that can thrive without a high on
7:17
Speaker 1: base percentage. You need to do one of two things
7:21
Speaker 1: really well. If you're on offense, and you know there
7:25
Speaker 1: are unique players that Nico Horner is probably the unique
7:28
Speaker 1: player that doesn't do either of these things that I'm
7:30
Speaker 1: about to talk about. But you need to have like
7:32
Speaker 1: a really high on base percentage or a really high
7:34
Speaker 1: slug right. The great the elite players do both. They
7:40
Speaker 1: hit for you know, like Juan Soto hits a ton
7:44
Speaker 1: of homers and he and he gets on base a ton.
7:47
Speaker 1: You know, people may not love that he got paid
7:49
Speaker 1: that much whatever, he got paid a ton because of
7:52
Speaker 1: those characteristics, you know, Shoheyo Tani Aaron Judge, they walk,
7:56
Speaker 1: they hit for power. Yeah, would be awesome. PCA walks more.
8:01
Speaker 1: He was talking about that, and I just didn't. I'm
8:04
Speaker 1: thinking like, yeah, good, improve But how are you going
8:10
Speaker 1: to walk this fine line of not sapping what you know,
8:14
Speaker 1: not taking away what makes you great, and suddenly you're
8:18
Speaker 1: going to walk more. It's possible, it has happened, We've
8:22
Speaker 1: seen it. It is hard to do, especially what is
8:26
Speaker 1: the mindset. I don't want it to be walk more,
8:29
Speaker 1: get a.
8:29
Speaker 2: Four hundred dollars base percentage. It should be the process,
8:33
Speaker 2: which is the swing decisions. And I even asked Craig
8:36
Speaker 2: this today.
8:38
Speaker 1: During our media session and it and I and I
8:41
Speaker 1: said like, how do you basically what I'm asking now, like,
8:46
Speaker 1: how do you balance that? How do you handle that
8:49
Speaker 1: balancing act and and make sure he doesn't hurt himself
8:52
Speaker 1: and he's.
8:53
Speaker 2: And he made a fair point. He doesn't need.
8:55
Speaker 1: To make leaps and bounds better there. There are different
8:59
Speaker 1: ways to so if he improves his swing decisions, that's
9:02
Speaker 1: improvement that like, it doesn't have to be he's walking.
9:05
Speaker 1: I think his ultimate point was he doesn't need to
9:08
Speaker 1: walk ten percent of the time. Right, I'm guessing PCA
9:13
Speaker 1: was in the four percent range, which is that's bad.
9:18
Speaker 1: That's not a good walk rate four and a half percent,
9:22
Speaker 1: And it's just who he is. And guess what, you
9:25
Speaker 1: can be a really good player and have a walk
9:28
Speaker 1: rate that's you know, around there because you hit for power.
9:33
Speaker 1: I think I think it what we want to see
9:37
Speaker 1: is not not specifically the walk Like if the walk
9:41
Speaker 1: rate goes up, great, and I know Pete talked about that,
9:45
Speaker 1: but it really just needs to be stop chasing as
9:48
Speaker 1: much and when you're in and just attack the pitches
9:53
Speaker 1: in the zone that you know you hammer. And when
9:56
Speaker 1: I talked to I've talked to a few people about this,
9:59
Speaker 1: you know, Bregnant obviously talked about it a bit.
10:01
Speaker 2: But that's that's the plan.
10:03
Speaker 1: Like they they want consistency with his setup in mechanics,
10:07
Speaker 1: which I believe he kind of got out of in
10:09
Speaker 1: the second half. And then the second thing is just
10:14
Speaker 1: just limit what you're swinging at and he changed that.
10:17
Speaker 2: He did, he got a little bit better with.
10:19
Speaker 1: The swing decisions. His ops went plummeting it. You know,
10:24
Speaker 1: that's when he struggled. His best months of as far
10:27
Speaker 1: as chase rate, were his worst months of production. I
10:31
Speaker 1: don't think the two are linked.
10:32
Speaker 2: I don't.
10:33
Speaker 1: I don't think, well that that means he needs to
10:37
Speaker 1: chase to thrive. I even asked him, like, you crush
10:39
Speaker 1: pitches outside of the zone and he's like, yeah, but
10:43
Speaker 1: more often than not, I'm not. And he's right that, like, yes,
10:47
Speaker 1: we see these insane the feats of athleticism where he
10:53
Speaker 1: will hit a pitch at his toes, hit a pitch
10:55
Speaker 1: at his eyes, and we'll go four hundred feet and
10:57
Speaker 1: we'll say, well, just swing at whatever you want because
11:00
Speaker 1: you're a freak. But I understand his point, and I
11:03
Speaker 1: think that's interesting that he understands. It's like, yeah, that
11:07
Speaker 1: I'm not going to go off the best moments there
11:09
Speaker 1: because more often than not, what's happening is I'm rolling
11:13
Speaker 1: up all over, am popping it out, or I'm missing it.
11:16
Speaker 2: So we want to limit that.
11:18
Speaker 1: And he's like, if I'm swinging what I'm swinging what
11:20
Speaker 1: I should be swinging at.
11:21
Speaker 2: Then those results.
11:22
Speaker 1: I'll still get those results because I can hit the
11:24
Speaker 1: pitch down the middle too.
11:26
Speaker 2: Obviously.
11:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's hard to be Elmago and the Greek god
11:31
Speaker 3: of walks at the same time. And I think sometimes
11:34
Speaker 3: we try to, like, you know, come up with this perfection,
11:40
Speaker 3: this idealized version of a player. And look, if Pete
11:45
Speaker 3: can just make those bad stretches a little bit shorter,
11:53
Speaker 3: if he can stay healthy, if he could maybe refocus
12:00
Speaker 3: in certain moments a little faster, it's gonna be a
12:03
Speaker 3: very good major league player for a long time. Obviously,
12:06
Speaker 3: that superstar level is if if whatever he was doing
12:09
Speaker 3: the first half, if he could like bottle that, I mean,
12:13
Speaker 3: he'd be, you know, be getting paid hundreds and hundreds
12:17
Speaker 3: of millions of dollars. But I think certainly the Cubs
12:23
Speaker 3: will take that. And I think we'll get into this
12:28
Speaker 3: in the next segment of like bringing in Alex Bregman
12:32
Speaker 3: is going to be a huge part of this equation
12:36
Speaker 3: for the Cubs going forward.
12:38
Speaker 2: Yep, let's take a quick break and do some Bregman talk.
12:47
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Speaker 1: Okay, but that's that's me still figuring out the system
13:58
Speaker 1: we're working with. We'll we'll get those bugs figured out.
14:01
Speaker 1: I'll figure out what I'm doing, all right, Alex Bregman,
14:07
Speaker 1: We've talked about it. Ken Roshal had a great piece
14:10
Speaker 1: kind of already detailing everything He's going to be more
14:15
Speaker 1: more of an impact than just what he brings on
14:17
Speaker 1: the field, Like ultimately what he brings on the field
14:20
Speaker 1: is the most important thing. He needs to He needs
14:24
Speaker 1: to hit, he needs to he needs to play great
14:27
Speaker 1: defense for all of this to be worth it.
14:30
Speaker 2: But he also.
14:33
Speaker 1: He clearly is making a very quick impact, like like
14:38
Speaker 1: as far as talking to everyone in this clubhouse and
14:43
Speaker 1: giving them little tidbits on how to improve.
14:46
Speaker 2: We just talked about Pete.
14:47
Speaker 1: Pete's making sure like I mean we saw it last
14:50
Speaker 1: year with Pete, Like Pete glombs on to these veterans.
14:53
Speaker 1: He wants to soak in information. I think, like obviously
14:58
Speaker 1: it was true justin Turner, but like Carlos Santana was
15:02
Speaker 1: there for like a month, and it was like every
15:04
Speaker 1: single time we walked into that clubhouse, he's he's trying
15:06
Speaker 1: to talk to He's trying to get some bit of
15:08
Speaker 1: information from PCAs trying to get some bit of information
15:11
Speaker 1: from him.
15:12
Speaker 2: Uh, that's how that's happening again with Bregman.
15:16
Speaker 1: Who seems to absolutely love giving, like talking the game
15:23
Speaker 1: and and helping others, you know, whether whether we talk
15:28
Speaker 1: about Nico or dansby these guys being you know whatever
15:32
Speaker 1: the baseball equivalent of a gym rat is like Bregman's
15:34
Speaker 1: that it sounds like to the nth degree.
15:36
Speaker 2: And we talked to him.
15:38
Speaker 1: Today for the first time as far as during spring training,
15:42
Speaker 1: and that was.
15:43
Speaker 2: A lot of the topic.
15:44
Speaker 1: You know, why why he's like this, What what drives him?
15:48
Speaker 1: And uh, I think one thing beyond the baseball stuff,
15:52
Speaker 1: and there is something baseball related that we'll touch on.
15:55
Speaker 1: But what what he kind of said? And look, he's
15:58
Speaker 1: like he was I wasn't the tallest, I wasn't the fastest.
16:01
Speaker 1: I don't have the strongest arm. I had to I
16:04
Speaker 1: had to be like a baseball nerd and and like
16:07
Speaker 1: like I want to be great, So I had to
16:12
Speaker 1: find every edge in all these other ways. And just
16:16
Speaker 1: being this, you know, building up the baseball like you
16:20
Speaker 1: was what he had to do because he doesn't like
16:23
Speaker 1: if you like, if you're measuring like exit velocity and uh,
16:28
Speaker 1: you know, can this guy steal a ton of bases? Uh?
16:32
Speaker 2: Does this guy have Mason Wyn type arm.
16:36
Speaker 1: You know, none of that stuff is really true for
16:38
Speaker 1: Bragmant and I guess I hadn't thought about that. But
16:42
Speaker 1: it's not like he's some like out of nowhere story.
16:46
Speaker 1: This is a top five draft pick, like.
16:50
Speaker 2: So you know, he he was highly thought of for
16:54
Speaker 2: for a very long time, but.
16:56
Speaker 1: He doesn't have all the attributes that you know, light up,
17:02
Speaker 1: light up, you know whatever statcast. I haven't looked at
17:05
Speaker 1: a stat gas page, but I'm curious if there's a
17:07
Speaker 1: lot of red there. But yeah, I just you know,
17:10
Speaker 1: like he's clearly going to make more of an impact
17:13
Speaker 1: than just than just what he does on the field.
17:18
Speaker 3: There was definitely a segment of fans, you know, in
17:21
Speaker 3: spring training last year, and you know it carried into
17:25
Speaker 3: the season of like why are you still bringing up Bregman?
17:27
Speaker 3: Why are you writing about Bregman. It's like because the
17:29
Speaker 3: Cubs wanted him badly, Like this was not just some
17:34
Speaker 3: sort of lark where they're, oh, like, maybe we'll check
17:38
Speaker 3: out and see if he'd have any interest. I was like, no,
17:43
Speaker 3: the clubhouse wanted him, they felt they needed him, and
17:49
Speaker 3: it wasn't just his on field contributions. It was just
17:53
Speaker 3: this reputation that he had developed as kind of a
17:58
Speaker 3: you know, baseball savant iver you want to call it,
18:00
Speaker 3: someone who and Ken, our colleague at Foul Territory, and
18:04
Speaker 3: then the Athletic detailed this Ken is a great teammate
18:08
Speaker 3: of ours who's always texting, you know, story ideas and
18:11
Speaker 3: you know, what do you think? And I love the story,
18:15
Speaker 3: but I was also kind of annoyed because Ken wrote
18:17
Speaker 3: like the exact story that one of us would have
18:18
Speaker 3: wanted to do, and he's like walked in there and
18:21
Speaker 3: nailed it. And obviously that will be an ongoing story.
18:24
Speaker 3: There's no sort of like end date to it. But
18:28
Speaker 3: it was fascinating where he did a you know, quick
18:32
Speaker 3: run through Cubs camp there and got you know, four
18:35
Speaker 3: or five maybe six anecdotes or perspectives just on someone
18:39
Speaker 3: who can help pictures make sure that they're not tipping pitches.
18:46
Speaker 3: You know, clearly that information he observes in other pictures
18:50
Speaker 3: he can share with guys in the dugouts and meetings.
18:54
Speaker 3: Jed Hoyer explaining how this guy wants to know what
18:58
Speaker 3: individual player plans look like and what the organization's hitting
19:02
Speaker 3: instructors are teaching. Again, like you kind of let off
19:06
Speaker 3: the segments. How of he's got to produce on the
19:09
Speaker 3: field for everything to matter. But like, when you take
19:13
Speaker 3: all of that together, I think you understand why the
19:15
Speaker 3: Cubs really went far outside their comfort zone to bring
19:18
Speaker 3: this guy to Chicago.
19:22
Speaker 1: Just just quickly, just I'm looking at his stack gass
19:25
Speaker 1: page now the player page, and look like there's plenty
19:29
Speaker 1: of red, but it's not in the measurables. Sprint speed well,
19:32
Speaker 1: but seventeenth percentile, bat speed, thirty first percentile, arms staring
19:37
Speaker 1: thirty six percentile. So all these measurables, he doesn't have them.
19:40
Speaker 1: But he squares the ball up, he doesn't chase, he
19:42
Speaker 1: doesn't swing and miss, and he walks and you know,
19:45
Speaker 1: he hits.
19:45
Speaker 2: For enough power that he's a special player and.
19:49
Speaker 1: Plays great defense at a pretty important position. So it's
19:53
Speaker 1: it's kind of cool to look at that and say, like, Okay,
19:57
Speaker 1: you don't like, you don't need to be this ah
20:01
Speaker 1: you know, athletic freak to to always uh succeed.
20:05
Speaker 2: I think baseball we've known that in.
20:07
Speaker 1: Baseball, like uh, there's always like these these players that
20:11
Speaker 1: it's like, well, he's not the fastest guy in the world,
20:13
Speaker 1: but he just he knows how to play the game.
20:15
Speaker 3: Uh.
20:16
Speaker 1: One thing that I I don't think Bregman is going
20:21
Speaker 1: to tell us like, look, I my that that injury.
20:26
Speaker 1: It was a quad injury. I believe, uh it was
20:30
Speaker 1: either quad or hamstring. I think it was quad, and
20:33
Speaker 1: I think it was pretty bad. I think it was
20:34
Speaker 1: a pretty bad injury. He came back from it. I
20:38
Speaker 1: don't think he was right. I think he was playing
20:41
Speaker 1: because that's what these guys do.
20:43
Speaker 2: And and when I.
20:45
Speaker 1: Say he wasn't right, I think he was good enough
20:47
Speaker 1: to play. And I think most players would have gone
20:49
Speaker 1: out there and played. I do think it changed some
20:52
Speaker 1: mechanics for him. You look at his first half numbers
20:55
Speaker 1: versus his second half numbers.
20:56
Speaker 2: I asked him about it. He kind of he quickly
21:00
Speaker 2: like just said, like, whatever it was.
21:02
Speaker 1: I'm healed, you know, I'm good to go. He wasn't like, yeah,
21:07
Speaker 1: definitely the second half struggle. But he was like maybe
21:09
Speaker 1: I don't know, but talking to some people, it sounds
21:12
Speaker 1: like some mechanics may have slightly changed. When your bass
21:17
Speaker 1: isn't there, you're not going to you know, play as well.
21:20
Speaker 1: I could probably say that. I mean we can say
21:22
Speaker 1: the same I think for Showtaimnaga. I think like things
21:25
Speaker 1: changed and Fragman was having like the best month and
21:31
Speaker 1: a half two months of his like maybe not the
21:34
Speaker 1: best of his career, but some of the best baseball
21:36
Speaker 1: he's played, especially offensively. That injury happened and he was
21:41
Speaker 1: not as good. He was fine, but not great, not
21:44
Speaker 1: super impactful offensively.
21:46
Speaker 2: After that, he.
21:48
Speaker 1: Talked about how, you know, he's really focused on that
21:51
Speaker 1: aspect as far as the muscle and like staying in
21:54
Speaker 1: shape and feels great. He's had scans and everything on it.
21:58
Speaker 1: Everything looks good, So I think that is going to
22:02
Speaker 1: be just like I think it's fascinating that he was
22:05
Speaker 1: playing that well. You know, he's not twenty five, and
22:12
Speaker 1: that you know what more can come, like if he's healthy,
22:15
Speaker 1: as long as he's muscle like, you always have to
22:18
Speaker 1: caveat it, right, because he did have that muscle issue.
22:21
Speaker 1: Is this you're in your thirties now. Is this a trend?
22:24
Speaker 1: We don't know yet, and I'm not saying it will be.
22:28
Speaker 1: I just don't know. But as long as that's not
22:31
Speaker 1: something that's going to pop up again, any sort of
22:33
Speaker 1: lower body issue or muscle issue, you know, you should
22:37
Speaker 1: feel good about where he's at in the offense, he
22:40
Speaker 1: can bring.
22:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a good reminder or kind of a disclaimer
22:46
Speaker 3: on all of the usual spring training optimism. It's like,
22:50
Speaker 3: there's a reason why the Cubs have avoided long term
22:52
Speaker 3: deals for guys in their thirties. Inevitably, every player's skill
23:00
Speaker 3: begin to erode at a certain point. And if Bregman
23:03
Speaker 3: is claiming, like here's number two pick in the draft,
23:07
Speaker 3: like multi time allstar, obviously he had as an amazing
23:11
Speaker 3: skill set. But if if the fast twitch muscles move
23:18
Speaker 3: slightly slower, if there's any if that arm strength, whatever
23:23
Speaker 3: whatever we're talking about, if that recedes just a little bit,
23:26
Speaker 3: maybe he's not coming from the absolute top of the scale.
23:30
Speaker 3: Like what's that gonna look like? Do these injuries sort
23:34
Speaker 3: of compound? Like those are valid things. How's it going
23:39
Speaker 3: to feel like when it's thirty degrees at Wrigley, like,
23:42
Speaker 3: you know, just playing in the World Baseball Classic? Like
23:46
Speaker 3: can he avoid injuries there? Like those are all things
23:49
Speaker 3: that could pop up. But I think at this moment
23:52
Speaker 3: it's appropriate to acknowledge that a lot of the leader
23:56
Speaker 3: stuff is overblown. And I think we usually sort of
23:59
Speaker 3: roll our eyes when some of these questions about your
24:02
Speaker 3: players stepping up, and there are different forms of leadership.
24:07
Speaker 3: Anthony Rizzo is a great dude and was great at
24:10
Speaker 3: like vibes and like taking pressure off. Some of the
24:14
Speaker 3: stuff we're talking about with Bregman was not really like
24:17
Speaker 3: Rizzo's forte. I'm just using that as one example, and
24:19
Speaker 3: like sometimes you know, guys who UH talk to the
24:24
Speaker 3: media a lot, are very friendly, are sort of portrayed
24:27
Speaker 3: as leaders when behind the scenes, it's not really like that.
24:32
Speaker 3: What we are telling you is that people within the
24:35
Speaker 3: Cubs and across baseball think the bregmant it factor matters.
24:41
Speaker 3: And the proof is in the contract. The fact that
24:45
Speaker 3: the Cubs did something like this and really kind of
24:49
Speaker 3: you re engineered their financial model for free agents when
24:52
Speaker 3: we're talking about deferred money, how long they went, how
24:56
Speaker 3: much they raised their offer from the previous year, like that,
25:01
Speaker 3: that tells you everything you need to know that his
25:04
Speaker 3: leadership stuff is real.
25:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, it, I mean, it's it's fascinating how the young
25:11
Speaker 1: players kind of and it's not just here, it's not
25:15
Speaker 1: like just the past few days. It you know, I
25:18
Speaker 1: really enjoyed reading about what he did in Boston, Uh,
25:21
Speaker 1: and how those young players.
25:23
Speaker 2: Uh.
25:24
Speaker 1: And and you know, and he's able to speak Spanish too,
25:28
Speaker 1: so those players, the Latin American players are able to
25:32
Speaker 1: relate to him. I think that's I think that's important.
25:34
Speaker 1: I think that's great. And and we'll it's something that
25:37
Speaker 1: we're just like you said, Ken wrote the first story.
25:40
Speaker 1: We'll probably be writing one one a month on.
25:43
Speaker 2: This guy and in various ways.
25:45
Speaker 1: So looking forward to covering him and really, uh, this
25:49
Speaker 1: team in general, uh, going forward because this is this
25:53
Speaker 1: is a fun Uh. These are the fun types of
25:56
Speaker 1: seasons that you look.
25:57
Speaker 2: Forward to covering.
25:57
Speaker 3: Uh.
25:58
Speaker 1: When there's this one, when these x ME dictations or
26:00
Speaker 1: high we'll see if they can deliver on them. All right,
26:05
Speaker 1: We'll have more next week from MESA. Thank you for
26:09
Speaker 1: listening to the Northside Territory Foul Territory Networks Cubs podcast.
26:12
Speaker 1: Make sure to rate, review, subscribe, subscribe to the YouTube channel,
26:15
Speaker 1: and subscribe to The Athletic where Patrick canarn on top
26:19
Speaker 1: of all things Cubs.
26:20
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening, everyone, Take care